Political Pendulums Are Grid-Wrecking Balls

Political Pendulums Are Grid-Wrecking Balls

I could write about electricity shortages and data centers every week. Maybe I’ll attempt to keep it to one per month. There are many reasons it’s important, but the big one is that it drives load growth, strains the bajeezus out of the grid, and keeps...
Renewables, The Scam of the Century?

Renewables, The Scam of the Century?

First, A Branding Whetter. Two weeks ago, I peppered the Big Three Automakers, Ford, General Motors, and the company formerly known as Chrysler, for forgetting their cash-cow customer base, which loves large gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and big honkin’...
Herding Chickens Through Modern Energyscapes

Herding Chickens Through Modern Energyscapes

A recent study, Stacked Energyscapes, led by professors at Loyola Marymount University and Penn State University, caught my eye. The paper describes webs of complexities associated with transitions from fossil-fuel-powered economies to clean-energy economies. I...
Electricity’s Decoupling From Fuel Costs

Electricity’s Decoupling From Fuel Costs

Two years after natural gas prices spiked, resulting in a jump in coal consumption for electricity (see Figure 1), natural gas prices have plunged to inflation-adjusted record lows. The Wall Street Journal reports drillers and producers are curtailing activity as...
The Energy Transition Grind

The Energy Transition Grind

Longtime Rant readers know I keep both feet on planet Earth, capturing all sides (typically two) and explaining, yes, but (fill in the blank). For the next case study, I was recently presented with a slide deck from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), The Cleantech...